A Sao Tomense woman strips the outer skin of a piece of sugar cane in the market of Sao Tom?. It is common to chew on the sugar cane, especially for children. Sugarcane was once a major export in the first half 17th century. Sao Tom? were at this time the largest exporters in the world. Sao Tom? and Princip? is Africa's second smallest country with a population of 193 000. It consists of two mountainous islands in the Gulf of New Guinea, straddling the equator, west of Gabon.